Additional information
by Benjamin Tonna (Author)
Traditionally, the city has been the locus for the development of civilization. The scholars, the poets, the persons of commerce and politics came to the city for inspiration and acceptance. The city has been both an intriguing place and a place of intrigue. For weal or woe, the city fashions our culture while altering cultures. The person who wishes to analyze with competence the sociological and theological dimensions of the city would do well to study thoroughly 'Gospel for the Cities'. It is a study for us who live and work in the urban centers of North America as well as for the missionary today who must bring deep insight - biblical, historical, and sociological - to the awesome task of working in the cities of the twenty-first century across the world. We have waited long for this book. Msgr. John J. Egan, University of Notre Dame Many books have been written...about cities and urbanization. But in an era of severe compartmentalization in knowledge, they have come from specialists in one discipline. Thus, we have the sociology of the city, the city in history, or the challenge of the city to the church. Now [this unique volume] provides a genuine and compelling interface between competent social analysis and historical description with first-rate mission theology and a solid biblical perspective. This difficult task has been accomplished with depth and comprehensiveness by Benjamin Tonna in a book of particular relevance to the Third World, but useful to all of us committed to concern for the cities in God's world. George W. Webber, President, New York Theological Seminary
Author Biography
Benjamin Tonna (d. 2001) helped to start SEDOS, the study center of the missionary-sending institutes in Rome. He became its Executive Secretary in 1967 and, in that capacity, interviewed hundreds of missionaries as they passed through Rome or in their places of ministry in the cities of the Third World. His liaison responsibilities with the urban mission group of the World Council of Churches in Geneva helped him share with them the ecumenical dimension of the mission to the cities.
He graduated with a degree in sociology from Louvain University and authored 'Sociologia della Pastorale', a handbook for the use of sociology in pastoral work. He served as parish priest of his native town of Rabat in the Republic of Malta as well as co-director with Brian P. Hall of the Omega Institute of the University of Santa Clara.
